Posted by Joshua on Thursday, May 19th, 2011

The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition to democracy. President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition, or get out of the way.

The Syrian government must stop shooting demonstrators and allow peaceful protests. It must release political prisoners and stop unjust arrests. It must allow human rights monitors to have access to cities like Daraa; and start a serious dialogue to advance a democratic transition. Otherwise, President Assad and his regime will continue to be challenged from within and will continue to be isolated abroad.

Republican Senator Mark Kirk said “He should have been harder. He should have called on [Assad] to step down.”

Senator John McCain, said “I would have liked for him to say [Assad] should step down, but that was good.”

Freshman Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a resolution last week with McCain and Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.) urging Obama to expand sanctions against Assad and his top lieutenants.

“I think Assad needs to get out of the way, leave power, and I wish the president would have said that,” Rubio told POLITICO. “I have no hope that Assad is a reformer. He is a murderer like his father before him.”

The sanctions are a “start,” Rubio added, but “I don’t think the Syrian people are going to be happy until Assad is out of the way.”

Under Assad’s rule, the Syrian regime “has chosen the path of murder and the mass arrests of its citizens,” Obama said in his speech at the State Department. Hundreds of unarmed protesters have been killed in clashes with the Syrian military.

Ros-Lehtinen Statement on Obama Middle East and North Africa Speech

(WASHINGTON) – U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued the following statement on President Obama’s speech on U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa: “I was pleased to hear the President express U.S. support for the advancement of democracy and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa. However, it is difficult to assess the President’s goals and objectives for the region when considering some of his most significant decisions since taking office, which have included pressuring Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians while at the same time reaching out to the Syrian and Iranian regimes.

“The President has now sanctioned Syria’s Assad for gross human rights violations against the Syrian people, yet he still envisions a role for Assad in Syria’s political future. And while the President rightfully drew parallels between Syria and Iran as partners in repression, no action has been taken to hold Ahmadinejad and Khamenei accountable for their brutality. We did not hear a plan to vigorously enforce all sanctions laws on the books to bring the greatest pressure possible on the Iranian and Syrian regimes.

“We did not hear a pledge from the President to cut off U.S. funding to a Palestinian Authority now aligned with Hamas, nor did we hear a pledge to veto the scheme to attain UN recognition of a Palestinian state without negotiating peace with Israel. I am also disappointed that the President failed to call on the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state, and instead imposed new pressure on Israel to make concessions on its borders.

“On Libya, after almost 60 days of U.S. involvement, we have no further clarity on our priorities, goals, and the anticipated extent of our commitment there. “I am deeply concerned that the President did not rule out providing aid to Egypt if the Muslim Brotherhood is part of the government. The U.S. should only provide assistance to Egypt after we know that Egypt’s new government will not include the Muslim Brotherhood and will be democratic, pro-American, and committed to abiding by peace agreements with Israel. Further, considering our own national debt, we cannot afford to forgive up to $1 billion of Egypt’s debt. “On the President’s proposal for Enterprise Funds in Egypt and Tunisia, we must keep in mind that the performance of such funds in Eastern Europe and South Africa has been mixed.

If approved, I will seek to require a portion of the profits generated be returned to the U.S. Treasury. “Going forward, I hope that the President will work closely with Congress to advance a comprehensive and consistent regional policy focused on protecting and promoting U.S. security

“The US obviously did not want to topple Assad. They just wanted to exploit the situation to create cards to play against him in future negotiations. The US thinks now that Assad will be weaker and thus more willing to give concessions. Assad is stubborn and he is not going to accept that. He is going to restore the balance by escalating the regional situation against the US interests.”

Abughassan writes:

“the sanctions will be seen as an escalation at a time when what is needed is dialogue. if that dialogue does not happen and the promised reform measures do not materialize, then we will all know that Bashar can not lead Syria since his legitimacy now is conditional upon enacting reform. Another problem with those symbolic sanctions is that they are not likely to change the regime’s behavior and can only serve to insult Bashar and make the regime less cooperative and more stubborn. Those sanctions make sense only if the US is actively working to remove the regime, so I am eager to see if that what is being cooked. The third problem with those sanctions is that they are very likely to complicate any future efforts to reduce tension and polarization in the region…”

Shai writes:

“I never suggested the international community should not pressure the Assad regime to make serious changes, reform, and lead Syria in the direction of a free and democratic society. But in some cases, it may be unwise to oust an existing regime, thinking whatever comes in its stead must be better. Clinton referred to Assad not long ago as a “reformer”. She didn’t anticipate what would occur thereafter, but she probably didn’t throw out this term accidentally. The Obama Administration may still prefer a Syria under Assad than either civil war, or some other form of dictatorship.”

George:

Obama clearly said “al-Assad can lead the transition.” The latter part of the same sentence is not important. The new US sanctions announced on the previous day was only symbolic and have no substance. So actually he endorsed al-Assad’s rule.

The call of general strike on last Wednesday ended in total failure, even miserable, and thus, exposed the UNPOPULARITY of anti-government movement inside Syria. It is time for protesters to go back home and to resume a normal life.

Related

Comments (187)

Sisyphussaid:

Putting it this way makes it harder for the president to reform. Is Obama going to take the credit for any reforms that do happen from now on? I think that if the regime does reform then it can spring some surprises on Obama and the Israelis..

The fast reply Obama usually get from Bibi 🙂
PM slams Obama call for ‘Palestine’ based on ’67 lines

A day before their scheduled meeting in Washington, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama staked out dramatically conflicting positions Thursday as to the path for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu issued a quick, bitter response on Thursday night to Obama’s landmark Middle East speech, saying that the establishment of a Palestinian state could not come “at Israel’s expense.”

Since Cairo I and the ‘arab spring’, the US is now in a terrible dilemma: Promotion of Democracy or Protection of Israel?
Should the US encourage democracies that may ultimately signify the end of the Jewish Israel with its floating borders?
Another row with Netanyahu on friday, great!

Ros-lehtinen might as well resign from the congress and apply for a position at the Mossad PR division. Her presence as the chairman of our foreign relations committee is a disgrace and an insult to every american with a brain. She is a side effect of democracy.
For decades millions of Arab Americans felt like the congress is an occupied territory,with Israel being the occupier,and this is our latest reminder of that fact.
It is not surprising that our congress felt uneasy about the removal of two us-backed dictators,stayed silent about those backward regimes in the gulf and was angered by the Palestinian effort to unify.
15 unarmed Arabs were killed by the IDF and our congress and president could only come with a statement slamming the victims and supporting Israel. This is why nobody in the streets of the middle east trust our politicians who are effectively doing as much harm to peace in that region as Israel does by supporting thugs like BB and his racist foreign minister.

If a future elected government of this massively influential Arab nation does not grasp the economic nettle, Egypt’s underlying weakness will continue to fuel instability and inter-communal conflict: failure will resound throughout the Arab world.

I am sorry I have to repeat.
The dictators are our problem, they are depriving us from our freedom, and they are the main and only obstacle that is preventing the Arab unity.

If Egypt has economic problem in the future,do not worry, by then Libya will be liberated from Gaddafi, and Egypt and Libya will unite.
Ali Saleh of Yemen is going away within a month,Gaddafi will be out by June,All eyes will be on Syria.

So sen Rubio is stating:
I don’t think Syrian people are going to be happy until Assad is out of the way.
So that is happiness the Iraqi way.what about Bahraini happines and Saudi happiness.I don’t think the sen knows any Syrian or has talked with any Syrian (except may be mr ghadri).

WD @10
Didn’t you know?
Like Ghawar said in Kaassak ya Watan, unity has been achieved long time ago, you can have breakfast in Baghdad, lunch in Riad, dinner in Khartoom and spend the weekend on the beach in Morocco.
All we are lacking is a little bit of Karameh, which the Kings, Sheikhs, Amirs and Sultans (the moderates) together with democratic Israel, the US and the west will deliver very soon as part of a development package.

President Barack Obama’s speech on the Middle East signaled a strategic shift in Washington’s thinking on Syria. The message was President Bashar al-Assad must lead a transition to democratic rule or “get out of the way.”

This means that the Syrian president must immediately begin a process of power sharing between his Alawite-minority dominated regime and his majority Sunni population or face international isolation and pariah status. The fact that Obama openly spoke about Iranian involvement ties Syria’s regional and domestic policies together.

Obama was also specific and public in issuing demands — something Washington has shied away from over the last two years as it pursued a policy based on facilitating Syria-Israel peace talks first and human rights a distant fifth.

By demanding that the Syrian government “stop shooting demonstrators and allow peaceful protests; release political prisoners and stop unjust arrests; allow human rights monitors to have access to cities like Dara’a; and start a serious dialogue to advance a democratic transition” its clear that Washington is developing policy metrics for measuring Assad’s actions.

While the regime in Damascus is not yet at the dramatic tipping point like those that led to the fall of the Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes, there is broad recognition among policymakers in Washington that the protest movement and its grievances cannot be accommodated by Assad’s minority regime. Other allies, including France and even Turkey, have come to the same general conclusion. Assad must choose the lesser of two evils dilemma from his perspective.

The issuing of sanctions yesterday against President Assad, Vice President Shara, the country’s Prime Minister, Interior Minister, and Security Chiefs, (as well at the bodies they command) means that the entire civilian and security apparatus have been essentially made international pariahs.

While it is doubtful that these individuals have many assets in the United States, the “knock on effect” of sanctions, plus similar sanctions rolled out by the European Union, mean those participating or benefiting in repression will not be able to invest their ill-got gains abroad.

Given Assad’s terrible track record on reform, there is little sign that he is willing or capable of fulfilling President Obama’s demands. In order to placate the protesters, Assad would have to make concessions that would end the privileges and graft enjoyed by the minority security chiefs and officials on whom he now relies more than ever. Thus, Washington needs to develop a plan designed to bring to an end the Assad regime as we know it now.

Whether this means power sharing that leads to majority rule or the full collapse of the Assad regime, Washington, together with its Western and regional allies, should reach out to the Syrian opposition and help them plan for the eventuality of a Syria without Assad at its helm and a Syria firmly out of Iran’s orbit.

******************************

Andrew Tabler is a Next Generation fellow in the Program on Arab Politics at The Washington Institute, where he focuses on U.S.-Syria relations. He is the author of the forthcoming book “In the Lion’s Den: An Eyewitness Account of America’s Battle with Syria.”

With these additional measures in place, Washington could rally allies around a common cause, send a strong message to Assad that his crackdown will cost him, and establish clear boundaries in terms of the scope of U.S. engagement with Syria.Washington can also use these instruments on Assad’s worsening domestic position to extract concessions on his relationship with Iran, be it his relationship with Hezbollah or — eventually, when the time is right — peace talks with Israel.

Bibi likes to humiliate Obama. I am just wondering if Bibi is not a bit racist in his attitude toward Obama. Israelis are known for their racism, they treat some of their own citizens as second and third class citizens. This is how it works:

Syria was able in the past to deal with many crises because its enemies always tended to overestimate their power and underestimate Syria.
There was an old joke in the 80’s that the syrian government won Nobel’s price in chemistry because they were able to transform the Syrian Pound into shit.
Despite everything, it is still much better than many people would expect or wish for.

I believe that Obama administration has concluded that Jr.’ regime was unable to reform itself, and has long passed the point of no return.

Why did Obama ask Jr. to lead reforms or leave?
Is it, because his administration, have lingering doubts of his ability to reform?
In my estimation the answer is: No.

Obama’s statement probably sums up a deliberate plan of stepwise diplomacy including increasing sanctions and the buildup of international coalition against the regime.

The plan has objectives, and limited time frame.
Here are some of its caveats, as I see it:
– If there is, 1 in a million chance, that Jr. may have intention or capacity to start genuine reforms, as some circles in US and Europe still do, he should be given the chance to do it!

– Major and precipitous shift in US handling of the regime may spoil its image by playing into the conspiracy scenarios. Giving more chances would prove the opposite.

– Applying step-wise pressure on the selected elite of the top ruling clan may increase pressure and force contradictions, within system elements that would hasten its collapse!

– Giving more time and space for Jr. is probably part of a deal with Russia and China. “We will respect your wish to give him an agreed time and space. But in case of incompliance, you shall not veto our next resolution to use the powers of the Security Council”.

“Washington can also use these instruments on Assad’s worsening domestic position to extract concessions on his relationship with Iran, be it his relationship with Hezbollah or — eventually, when the time is right — peace talks with Israel.”

They are dreaming, all this talk about concessions is nonsense. The real concessions are the ones that Obama is making to the neocons.

1. Syria would never give up on its regional strategic alliances to be friend with the US because the only friend of the US in the region is Israel, and the gulf monarchies to the extent they have the same attitude toward Israel as the US.

2. Why would Arab rulers concede something to the US? Just to be humiliated and then left on your own (like Mubarak and ben Ali) or even worse attacked like Ghaddafi and Saddam?

Sanctions were imposed on Iran in 1979. Since that time the US keeps on widening the scope of the sanctions to include more individuals, organizations and items. The US played a major role in getting the EU and the UN to impose additional sanctions on Iran. The result was to motivate Iran to be self reliant and boost its resolve at overcoming any effect the sanctions might have.
Why would anybody think that the sanctions against Syria will have any serious effect, or stir the government and its policies in any direction, other than closer to Iran?

Why are you guys over-analyzing some speech by some nobody? As Syrians, did we ever care who was in the white house? We already know it’s just the same person time after time under a different mask. This was demonstrated beautifully by Duraid Lahham in “Dhei`et Tishreen” (Tishreen Village), and this was in the 70’s? Maybe 80’s?

The US has this complex where it needs to feel that its president is not just some important influential person, but also the most powerful person on Earth. When did Obama say Mubarak should step down? He did it a week after it became obvious to every person with a brain that it was going to happen. You didn’t need to be educated in politics to know he was done for.

Now transfer this to the Syrian situation. Why would he declare Bashar illegitimate when it is so clear that their plot stopped dead in its tracks? Wouldn’t it be something if he were to say “Asad should step down” or “Asad lost his legitimacy” just to see a few months later that Asad is more popular than ever in Syria? When that happens, then Obama loses HIS OWN legitimacy to lead. He would lose his influence instantly and the mask would get replaced with a new AIPAC-groomed one during the next elections.

-Pres Alshakfa meets pres Erdogan.pres Erdogan brings with him translated books written by him(Ethnic Cleansing:The Ottman Experience)and(Hundred ways and a way to fool Arabs).in a news conf after the meeting he stated that he dos’t think that he will ditch Alshakfa like he did with Assad because of the S-S factor (vs the S-Afactor with Assad).after the meeting aljazera Eyewittnesses reported seeing Erdogan and Alshakfa eating ice-cream at الباشا in alhamedia.Eyewittnesses couldn’t take pictures because they lost there phones supplied by aljazera.

-vice president نجيب الغضبان visits pres of Kurdistan prov كركور زيباري .meeting was held under Kurdish flag.كركور refused to allow Syrian flag in the meeting.Karkor announced after the meeting that getting citizenship to Kurds and accepting Kurdish language as a main language in Syria and changing the Syria national anthem is not enough and that west Damascus and east halab should join kurdistan.Najeeb announced after the meeting that it really dos’t matter to him because he has American citizenship,but he has ordered his political science books to be DHL to him from the state.Syrian pashmarga searched Najeeb befor and after the meeting .Karkor gave Najeeb a book titled (the Syrian myth :the occupied Kurdistan )

The dream of Arab unification will soon arise again after the young Arabs realize that the “revolutions” won’t magically solve their problems but rather will make things worse.

This is a cycle that is repeating itself. The Arabs revolted against the Turks in WWI to only make their situation worse (division, Western colonialism, etc.). Arab nationalist regimes emerged in reaction to the disasters that the Arab Revolt left. This story is going to happen again when the Arabs realize that the “Arab spring” will only increase the divisions and decrease the independence of their countries.

It is sad that the Arabs are stupid and ignorant. They don’t read history and they learn only through repetition, like an ass التكرار يعلم الحمار.

I expect that within 20 years or so we will see a new Nasser in Egypt in reaction to the failures that the new regime will leave. The US will try to prevent that by pouring money into Egypt (similar to the Eisenhower project of the 1950’s which was refused by Egypt at the time). The increased American aid to Egypt will mean that Egypt will become even more dependent on the US than it was. The US will try hard to make Egypt like Turkey, but if Egypt’s economy fails to grow well enough, Arab nationalism will grow again in Egypt and the Egyptians will seek independence from the US. We also must realize that many Egyptians still regard themselves Arabs and they can be influenced greatly by what happens in surrounding Arab countries. Egypt, unlike Turkey, is an Arab country. To totally control Egypt you must control the Arab world. The future of Egypt is uncertain but there is a good chance that we will see a revival of Nasserism if the country fails.

If Nasserism lives again in Egypt, the Syrians (being asses) will probably seek to unite with Egypt again. The vital interest of Syria is to unite with Iraq, not Egypt; but knowing that Syrians don’t learn form history, I don’t see this happening.

Jad
Bin Jiddo knows that unless his two interviews and this piece are translated into English, it will never make it to the air. Why speaking only for the Arabs? They are busy looking for a way to eat in Tunis, Egypt and Syria, and spend no extra time on the internet.

What he said about Palestine was troubling. He doesn’t want them to seek independence through the UN because he regarded that as ‘isolating’ Israel. And even though he talked about ’67 borders, the process will still be at a pace that suits Israel (never). The Palestinians will not be allowed to form their own state until Israel is comfortable with that,because the U.S will veto it. The speech really had nothing new – just words.

Obama clearly said “al-Assad can lead the transition.” The latter part of the same sentence is not important. The new US sanctions announced on the previous day was only symbolic and have no substance. So actually he endorsed al-Assad’s rule.

The call of general strike on last Wednesday ended in total failure, even miserable, and thus, exposed the UNPOPULARITY of anti-government movement inside Syria. It is time for protesters to go back home and to resume a normal life.

Assad is making sure, by destroying sunni centers and the thousands of arrestations of young men that every sunni hate this regime.
Not smart way to retain his seat when they are 75% of the population.

I think the Palestinians should get rid of their leaders, stop ‘negotiating’ with Israel because there cannot be negotiation with those extremists, and keep doing what they did last sunday, march peacefully to reconquer their land.
The formula of peaceful demonstrations is the only one to corner Israel in front of the international community.

By the way I really love the picture that accompanies this article, it fits better with the article than the previous one. The previous one was made when Obama was a promising president but we now know that there cannot be promising presidents in the US for the ME because when it comes to the ME there is no US and no Israel but only USrael.
The other thing is that we will have to live for a long time with the consequences of neocon policies in the ME no matter who the president of the US is.

Also, since you seem to be such an expert on Middle East affairs and a great supporter of Arab despots, please tell the audience here who the “neocons” are in the following picture. I’ll even let you get help from Professor Josh;)

Demonstrations all over Syria,the pro regime continue their lies,and syrian media continue lies and deceiving,Halab participated too,all prove that what Bashar said( the crisis is ending) is not true at all.

Yesterday (at approximately 19:13 GMT) I heard a blunt call for sectarian war on Barada TV (funded by the US government).

This situation is growing very much like expected. First the sectarian divisions were masked, and now the mask is being taken off by the losing faction. Like the MB in the 1980’s, the Wahhabis-Americans believe that blunt sectarian incitement is their last shot to win the struggle

It won’t work. It is too late for the opposition now to salvage the rebellion. They have lost. They still can incite demonstrations, but they can’t control any place in Syria.

One woman describing armed terrorist gangs displacing them from their homes, then burning them down. Others describing being terrorised by the armed gangs coming in from Wadi Khaled, breaking into their houses, stealing valuables and destroying them, robbing and destroying their shops.

Some people describe being shot, beaten and prevented from going out to buy necessities for their households and children by these gangs. Then they describe the life after the intervention of the Syrian army and their gratitude for a return to peace in their hometown.

The Syrian government is regaining peace to the nation. Imposing sanctions will not affect Syria, the country will continue to prosper as it did during previous sanctions.

Obama metamorphosis into Bush is significant that the US is a hostage to its own self-image as a model and a saviour of humanity.
Seeing its real greedy and evil face would be such a trauma to the common americans that the media and the leaders keep reassuring them of the moral duty of their proud and grand state: bringing the new religion ‘democracy’ to the “others” less fortunate at any cost. The collaterals, deaths, destruction are the way to the heaven of democracy, the death are the martyrs of democracy etc..
It sounds so much like Christianity in the past when missionaries were sent to force natives to adhere to the wonderful world of Jesus by converting them by force. Also the first Americans went on killing the Indians and exploiting the blacks to force them into accepting the rule of the white christian who knows what is best.
The US has a history of violent ideological fascism disguised into “moral duties” and ‘its for their own good’.
All their presidents end up by being a carbon copy of the previous one.

The regime has generally managed to tame the internal opposition into a non-rebellious opposition. Shooting at the police/army still happens, but not as frequently as before. The opposition no longer seeks to “liberate” towns by forcing the government out of them.

Assad said he was training his police on how to deal with demonstrations, so deaths among unarmed protesters should decrease.

Assad will have completely succeeded in taming the opposition when they start seeking licenses for their demonstrations, but this will still take long time before it happens.

I am surprised that the government has not yet arranged a location, well secured, where people can come and demonstrate peacefully.
Similar to Tahreer. Maybe it’ll come.

According to all Jazira, always eager to talk about deaths, many of today’s demonstrations were peaceful and when violent, gaz and shots in the air were used. The security forces are being equipped and trained.
As I mentionned it before, contrary to Europe that regularly deals with riots and street violence, Syria has not seen riots for the last 40 years, no wonder the security forces are neither equipped not trained for such events and that many tragic errors were made. Now it’s changing.

Ahmad AlBiasi, the guy shown being mistreated in a video by security forces in Bayda, and later appeared in another video holding his I.D to refute govenment claims that the video was shot in Iraq and showed Bishmarka, has died under torture in detention at Kafar Souseh prison activists said today

Revlon million kamishli revolution consisted of a bunch of kids silling gum during the day and steeling قناني غاز and bicycles from Christian neighborhoods at night.today they were off .PKK will pay theme instead of the stolen goods.
There was no Assyrians in this مهزله.there history and وطنية dont allow theme to stab people in there back and support a mb emara . Did you stop by ام محمد for coffee today?I heard that feda alseed is having gastric bypass surgery.double check with here .

Robert Fisk: Lots of rhetoric – but very little help
Then we had to hear what America’s ‘role’ was going to be in the new Middle East. We did not hear if the Arabs wanted them to have a role

It was the same old story. Palestinians can have a “viable” state, Israel a “secure” one. Israel cannot be de-legitimised. The Palestinians must not attempt to ask the UN for statehood in September. No peace can be imposed on either party. Sometimes yesterday, you could have turned this into Obama’s forthcoming speech to pro-Israeli lobbyists this weekend. Oh yes, and the Palestinian state must have no weapons to defend itself. So that’s what “viable” means!

It was a kind of Second Coming, I suppose, Cairo re-pledged, another crack at the Middle East, as boring and as unfair as all the other ones, with lots of rhetoric about the Arab revolutions which Obama did nothing to help. Some of it was positively delusional. “We have broken the Taliban’s momentum,” the great speechifier said. What? Does he really – really – think that?”

Of course, there was the usual rhetoric bath for Libya, Syria, Iran, the usual suspects. And there were the words. Courage. Peace. Dignity. Democracy. A creature from Mars would think that the man had helped to bring about the revolutions in the Middle East rather that sat primly to one side in the hope that the wretched dictators might survive.

There was some knuckle-rapping to Bahrain (no revolution there, of course) and there was not a word about Saudi Arabia, although I rather fancy its elderly king will be on the blower to Obama in the next few days. What’s all this about change in the Middle East?

We got one timid reference to “Israeli settlement activity”, a crack at Hamas (naturally), lots of tears for the Tunisian vegetable vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, who started off the revolutions – Tunisia being one state that Obama never actually mentioned until Ben Ali had run away. The “humiliation of occupation” for the Palestinians – this was a straight repeat of Cairo two years ago – and the tale of a Palestinian “who lost three daughters to Israeli shells” in Gaza. I got the point, of course. The man just “lost” his daughters to shells that happened to fall on them; no suggestion that anyone actually fired them.

Is Obama just talking too much? I fear so. He was cashing in, bathing in his own words as he did in his miserable performance when he got the Nobel Peace Prize for Speechmaking.

And then, I guessed it before he said it, he compared the Arab revolutions to the American revolution. We hold these truths to be self-evident, etc, etc. That many Arabs fought and died to be free of us than to be like Americans was quite lost on him. And then we had to hear what America’s “role” was going to be in the new Middle East. We did not hear if the Arabs wanted them to have a role. But that’s Obama for you. Always searching for a role.

Well, this weekend is Netanyahu’s weekend and the Israeli settlements – more were flagged only hours before Obama spoke – will go on as before. And by the time Obama ends up swearing eternal loyalty to the Israelis, the Arabs will forget yesterday’s posturing. And the reference to the “Jewish state” was obviously intended to make Netanyahu happy. Last time I went there, there were hundreds of thousands of Arabs who lived in Israel, all of them with Israeli passports. They didn’t get a reference from Obama. Or maybe I was just imagining.

It sounds like the organizers didn’t get enough blood because of the security not shooting directly at the protesters, so they use plan B; let’s attack and burn public buildings and cars maybe it will provoke the security to shoot more so we can have more bodies and blood to add to the list and use them for tomorrow.

These are some samples from FB talks about Hama, Homs, Ma’ara, Palmyra and Idleb

21 May 2011
The Economist
English
(c) The Economist Newspaper Limited, London 2011. All rights reserved

Syria and the region

Governments opposed to Syria’s still fear his downfall

A WEATHERED Middle East truism holds that, while there can be no all-out Arab-Israeli war without Egypt, there can be no long-term peace without Syria. Poor and militarily feeble, Syria has used its location as a geopolitical hub and its nimble, ruthless politics to make itself indispensable to the regional order. But as a two-month-old uprising against the regime of President Bashar Assad refuses to be suppressed, Syria risks losing that position as a linchpin, perhaps enough to alter the Middle East’s balance of power.

“When something has been in the icebox for 40 years, there is no telling how it will look when it melts,” says a human-rights activist who covers Syria, referring to the decades of dictatorship under Mr Assad and his father, Hafez, an air-force commander who seized power in 1970. The prospect of prolonged unrest, outright anarchy or sudden regime change confronts all Syria’s neighbours, as well as allies such as Iran, Lebanon’s Shia party-cum-militia, Hizbullah, and various Palestinian factions, including the Islamist movement, Hamas, with a conundrum.

Most of them would rather Mr Assad stayed. Even the Israelis, despite seeing Syria as their most diehard Arab foe, know that the Assads have kept their mutual border quiet. Facing restlessness from his own people, Jordan’s King Abdullah does not want a democratic uprising to succeed next door. Iraq, now shakily ruled by its Shia majority after ugly years of sectarian war, fears what may happen if Syria’s Sunni majority, three-quarters of the population, seized power after decades of domination by Mr Assad’s Alawites, an offshoot of Shia Islam numbering a tenth of Syria’s people. Turkey, which has cultivated close ties to Mr Assad as part of its “zero problems” policy, also fears chaos on its longest border and the empowerment of Syria’s long-oppressed Kurdish minority.

Polarised as always, the neighbouring Lebanese differ starkly over the predicament faced by Syria, where the regime has long exercised undue influence on Lebanon’s own messy sectarian politics. Yet even Mr Assad’s keenest detractors worry that, should he fall, his powerful and well-armed Lebanese allies may panic. Hizbullah, seeing its physical link to its Iranian mother-ship threatened, could drop its pretences that it respects Lebanese democracy, in which it has played a largely behind-the-scenes role. “Hizbullah will not take this lying down,” warns a politics professor in Beirut, contemplating the Assads’ possible downfall. “They will make a coup and take over the system.”

But even among his allies the brutal tactics used by Mr Assad, including mass arrests and the deployment of tanks, artillery and snipers against unarmed crowds, have muted support for his regime. The ineptitude of Syria’s state-controlled media, in the face of a barrage of grisly imagery and moving verbal testimony detailing the regime’s cruelty, has made it hard to sustain his official narrative. The Assads have long drawn legitimacy from their dogged support of Palestinian rights. Yet the sight of Palestinian protesters storming border fences along the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as they did on May 15th (see next article), was widely dismissed in the Arab press as a ploy to divert attention from Syria’s own troubles. For the Israelis it suggested that a flailing Assad regime might be worse for them than an untested new one.

On the ground in Syria the protesters’ failure so far to disrupt ordinary life much in the two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, helps the regime to portray the unrest as small and scattered incidents provoked by foreign agitators. Syrian officials say government forces have won the upper hand in the peripheral zones where rebellion has spread, insisting it is now a matter of time before the protests fade. A nationwide strike called by the opposition on May 18th was widely ignored.

Most commentators think the regime is in no imminent danger of collapse. In Egypt and Tunisia more professional armies refused to open fire to save their beleaguered presidents after the collapse of the police. But Syria’s army is designed to protect the regime. Key brigades, better equipped and trained than the rest of the army, are commanded by Assad clansmen or trusted loyalists. Few doubt their will to fight to the end.

Syria’s opposition is diffuse and still leaderless. Over the years the regime has co-opted much of the urban Sunni middle class and convinced other groups, such as the Christian minority of some 10%, that without Mr Assad Syria may descend into civil war in the manner of Iraq or Lebanon.

Yet with 800 or so dead and dozens of towns and villages under virtual siege by the army, Syria’s revolt may have reached a self-sustaining momentum, albeit not at a level likely to topple the state soon. Sectarian hatred, initially played up by the regime to rally support from other minorities, is becoming a reality. It is not a coincidence that the most persistent revolts and the worst retribution have occurred in Sunni-dominated areas. Sporadic attacks on security forces, of whom the government says 120 have been killed, seem to have specifically targeted Alawite officers.

“We’re in for at least six months more of this,” reckons a Damascus businessman who has prospered under Mr Assad’s rule. “After that we’ll have a weakened Bashar limping along or the generals will decide that the Assads are a liability.”

AMMAN, May 20 (Reuters) – Syrian security forces shot dead at least 10 demonstrators on Friday during protests which broke out across the country in defiance of a military crackdown which has killed hundreds of people, a rights activist said.

Other activists reported demonstrations across Syria, from Banias on the Mediterranean coast to Qamishli in the Kurdish east, one day after the United States told President Bashar al-Assad to reform or step down.

Some protesters were calling for freedom, they said, while others called for “the overthrow of the regime”, the slogan of Arab uprisings which have toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.

Syria has barred most international media since the protests broke out two months ago, making it impossible to verify independently accounts from activists and officials.

Lawyer Razan Zaitouna said eight people were killed in the central city of Homs. Amateur video uploaded by activists, who said it was filmed in Homs, showed scores of marchers scattering as gunfire erupted. A police car was left burning in the street.

Zaitouna said two other people were killed in the town of Sanamin, south of the capital, and in the Barzeh district of Damascus. Tanks entered the town of Maaret al-Numan, south of Syria’s second city Aleppo, she added.

The United States, which has condemned the crackdown as barbaric, imposed targeted sanctions against Assad this week and President Barack Obama said on Thursday Syria must move away from “the path of murder and mass arrest”.

“The Syrian people have shown their courage in demanding a transition to democracy,” Obama said. “President Assad now has a choice: He can lead that transition or get out of the way”.

Despite strong words from the White House, the West has so far taken only small steps to isolate Assad when compared to its bombing campaign against Libya’s leader Muammar Gaddafi, also accused of killing protesters.

ASSAD’S CHALLENGE

The two-month uprising has posed the gravest challenge to Assad’s rule. In response, he has lifted a 48-year state of emergency and granted citizenship to stateless Kurds, but also sent tanks to several cities to suppress the protests.

The main weekly Muslim prayers on Fridays are a rallying point for protesters because they offer the only opportunity for large gatherings, and have seen the worst death tolls in unrest which rights groups say has killed at least 800 civilians.

Syrian authorities blame most of the violence on armed groups, backed by Islamists and outside powers, who they say have killed more than 120 soldiers and police. They have recently suggested they believe the protests have peaked.

Activists reported shooting in Banias and the Damascus suburb of Saqba on Friday. Both were subjected to security sweeps earlier this month aimed at crushing dissent.

“The sound of gunfire is being heard now in Banias. The demonstration erupted although around 1,000 people from the city and around it have been detained in the last few weeks,” said a spokesman for the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A witness said security forces fired teargas on protesters in the city of Hama, where around 20,000 people had gathered in two separate areas. Security forces also used teargas to disperse around 1,000 protesters in the town of Tel just north of Damascus, another witness said.

Since the protests first broke out in March, they have spread across southern towns, coastal cities, Damascus suburbs and the central city of Homs. The two main cities of Damascus and Aleppo have remained relatively quiet.

Western powers, fearing instability across the Middle East if Syria undergoes a dramatic upheaval, at first made only muted criticisms of Assad’s actions, but then stepped up their condemnation and imposed sanctions on leading Syrian figures.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it would freeze any assets owned by Syrian officials that fell within U.S. jurisdiction, and bar U.S. individuals and companies from dealing with them.

The sanctions also applied to Syria’s vice president, prime minister, interior and defence ministers, the head of military intelligence and director of the political security branch, but it was unclear which assets, if any, would be blocked.

An EU diplomat said the European Union was also likely to extend its sanctions on Syria next week to include Assad.

Damascus condemned the sanctions, saying they targeted the Syrian people and served Israel’s interests.

“The sanctions have not and will not affect Syria’s independent will,” an official source was quoted as saying on state television on Thur

Atassi,
Are convinced now that the security people are not being killed by the government but by the fanatics,

read this,

(( Yet with 800 or so dead and dozens of towns and villages under virtual siege by the army, Syria’s revolt may have reached a self-sustaining momentum, albeit not at a level likely to topple the state soon. Sectarian hatred, initially played up by the regime to rally support from other minorities, is becoming a reality. It is not a coincidence that the most persistent revolts and the worst retribution have occurred in Sunni-dominated areas. Sporadic attacks on security forces, of whom the government says 120 have been killed, seem to have specifically targeted Alawite officers.))

It is a betting game, whether post-spring will be better or worse. Not only in Syria, but in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Bahrain and Yemen.
All these governments will be under severe pressure from inside and outside to fulfill their promises.
The difference is that in Syria, the changes, if and when they happen, would be under the same umbrella for the best or the worst.
The other difference potentially detrimental to Syria in the eyes of many syrians, is that there are heavy resentments from the people who suffered of the mistakes and abuses ( civilians and security). This has to be dealt with, otherwise it may stain any reform. Reconciliation, concessions could be used to show the protesters that they are not loosers, that they have changed the course of the country. Its a delicate balance that the post-spring governments must work with.

More than half the Europeans thought by then that Israel was the biggest danger to world peace. I am curious to see, now that Netanyahu has been pushed in a corner, if he will resort to terrorism.

Mina,

What the Europeans “think” isn’t so important to me since that is where a third of my people perished this past century.

And even though you may be “curious” IF Netanyahu “will resort to terrorism”, why not deal with the terrorism that is occuring NOW in Syria?

This “pushed into a corner” scenario is way over blown. Obama’s speech, although it did focus on the holy ’67 border, did not count out adjustments and issues regarding Israel’s security concerns. As with most American ME declarations, they are mostly ignored by both sides of the conflict. As I’ve said numerous times, the parties are more happy with the status quo than anything else.

Speeches are for suckers. Until the US and Western Europe impose a no fly zone and blockade on Israel for violating UN resolutions, international laws, human rights, etc…Arabs should not expect any tangible changes in American policy in the Middle East. As well intentioned as Obama may be, he is not capable of defying Israel and its backers, which is the primary cause of the misery in Middle East.

It’s really amazing how quickly American politicians managed to hijack the “Arab Spring”. Listening to Obama’s speech yesterday, one would think he is the leader of the “Arab Spring”… Did Arabs already forget who did, and continues to support and fund their oppressors? Does anyone really believe Obama, or any American politician, is capable of going against the AIPAC/neocons? The notion that any American president has real power to do anything independently is laughable. The AIPAC/neocons have complete control over America foreign policy, regardless who is the White House. The US will never go against Israel’s interest. When did America ever do anything to support any Arabic cause? Arab independence can only be achieved organically, as in the example of Tunisia and Egypt, not through American sweet poetic talks of freedom and democracy.

Targeting Syria is a cheap way of diverting attention away from the Middle East biggest offender, Israel. Did I miss the passing of a UN resolution giving America the almighty power to dictate to other countries how to run their internal affairs? Unlike Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the rest, Syria doesn’t owe the US anything for its generous “support”. The US has been punishing the Syrian government economically, politically and militarily for decades for its resistance stand against Israel, yet it now feels it has the right to tell Syrians what’s good for them. What exactly does Syria owes the US? And why should any Syrian believe the US is acting in Syria’s best interest? Just one reason…

The uprising in Syria is a Sunni Islamist uprising. The regime cannot encourage people to demonstrate or there will be at least 10 million people permanently demonstrating against the kafir Alawi regime. The regime must end these Islamist protests, it must not indulge them. However, deaths among unarmed protesters do not help end the protests. This is a technical mistake that must be avoided.

To end the uprising, the regime applied an old strategy that worked well in the 1970’s-1980’s. He divided the Islamists and conquered them. The uprising now is dying. However, what the regime will do AFTER quelling the uprising is crucial. The Islamists will definitely come back, and probably very soon. If the regime wants to survive, it must start a new political process in Syria. Radical reforms are need or the country is definitely going to a civil war.

The regime must focus on keeping the Islamists isolated and weak. Joshua Landis said that the regime must start a political process that would lead to hading power over to Sunnis. This is exactly what the Wahhabis want and I don’t think the regime will do it, because this would mean undoing everything the Baath did since 1963. The Alawis do not trust any Sunni (if you watch Barada TV, you will know why) and they are not going to hand power over to “Sunnis.”

The only thing Assad can do now is to allow secular parties to compete for the PM seat under his supervision. This will keep the Islamists isolated for some more time.

I agree with you that killing the eggs of the serpents in the nest is better than to let them grow and harm as they will soon do in Egypt and maybe Tunisia, and as they did in Algeria in 1991. I worry Egypt may turn like Algeria in the 1990. A ‘free’ election could bring the serpents disguised in lambs in power and a bloody civil war will ensue where the liberals will try to crush the serpents.

Maybe cleaning up the nests is a better approach, despite international criticism and inevitable tragic errors, than the civil war and 200,000 dead as it was in Algeria. It would be more rewarding on short and long term for Syria

Things may get really messy before the US and the EU give this ‘revolutionary’ minority what they want. The paradox is that they want to get rid of Assad in order to achieve a democracy but they really are a minority…

How come no Syrian Kurd casualties in this ‘Kurdish’ Friday where they were the most active ones calling for it!?
All the 21 casualties reported today are in Homs 10, Ma’ara 7, Sanameen 2, Daraya 1 and Lattakia 1.

Is that a footage of shooting at peaceful protesters by AK47 or shooting ‘khrdo2’ and gas at protesters rioting, throwing stones and trying to vandalize buildings.

I think everybody have enough of these absurb demonstrations in small villages and towns calling for “freedom and dialog” that Al Jazeera qualifies today as “more than 10,000 protesters calling for regime change”.
If these protesters enjoy so much to demonstrate safely every friday with their family after prayer, then they should be invited to a stadium where they can demonstrate at will without destroying public properties and threatening innocents.
In my view Al Jazeera bears a responsibility in the blood spill and I hope someday it will be sued for the harm they have and continue to do by their biased reporting and incitations. I don’t think TV news or journalists should be immune. They should be tried, fined and jailed if they are found to spread false or unverified information. In any case Al Jazeera time will come. They will be made persona non grata in all the Arab countries who are fed up of their arrogance and their abuses.

Funny thing about the esteemed pundits of Syria Comment: They’re quite worried about the future of minorities in Syria….. well, except that ‘minority’ that is pro-democracy and protesting. That ‘minority’ can go to hell.

After today’s events it is very clear that Syria is going to be Kandahar.I can tell MB,Binder,karadawi,Erdogan, Sarkozi …congratulations you all are very successfull in raping Syria and opening the doors of hell on it.history will tell you that this was an inernal and international stupid miscalculated gambling.Ashtoon get ready to give visas to millions of syrians displaced due to your dementia and brain atrophy.Erdogan get ready to deal with the Kurdish and PKK jinnys and spit on your Syrian friends staying in Istanbul and giving you there evil advises.Hariri,jaja,and all the politically teaneger libanes get ready to drink the sectarian poison you are giving to your twin sister.
Syrians this sad but every Friday you are showing the world that you are just players in the nations game which is being played in our country.every Friday we are getting deeper and deeper into the secarian hell hall.
Congradulaions Syria is Kandahar.
Good luck.

WD,
Why they are not waving the American and the EU flags next to the Turkish one which is bigger than the Syrian flag!?
Honestly I can’t believe that any Syrian with the slightest national dignity and brain would wave a Turkish flag, the same one that occupied Syria for 400 years….pathetic.

The minority is protesting ,yes they are protesting against your dummy revolution ..its good to know your opinion ,syrian people either with you or they can go to hell ,you should call your self “hellnow” at least its honest

Democracynow,
Everything can be funny seen from your armchair.
There is now 50,000 refugees in Tunisia, near the Libyan border. The West does not send money to the red cross or comes with a solution for them. They are in tents. They must be very happy for the people of Benghazi. Another naqba, foreign workers deported out of the country, the ‘coalition’ destroying the local infrastructure. For what? Beautiful pictures of people queuing to the ballots in a few months? We have seen these pictures in Afghanistan, Iraq. Will the Libyans be happy when they will be left with no water, no electricity as in Iraq?
The Syrian system needs a lot of reforms, no doubt about it, but it cannot rely on technocrats who can assure a transition, as in Tunisia and Egypt. Qatar has led the counter-revolution by creating a huge Libyan problem to its neighbout. The trap was very clear: a new massacre broadcasted live (Qaddafi’s troops arriving in Benghazi) or Western muslims getting enraged at the West inaction when the West does nothing when the victims are muslim.
The crisis is too strong in US and Europe (both are bankrupt) that they need to create some news to feed the people in their armchairs for the next coming years.

Is this statement right or wrong: The majority of Syrians do WANT CHANGE and the thousands who took out to the street are brave citizens.

Regime change was not the intention, reform was. When the regime chose to turn their gun inwards, the chanting and the demands changed at once. Since March 15 to this day the only change, the mask is off the dictator.

To call these noble, brave protesters by any other name is as dishonest and barbaric as this mafia in dealing with the legitimate right of every human being to say, Yes to freedom and No to oppression.

Europe and the USA are far from bankrupt. In case you were home sick the day they handed out the economics plugins, recession does not equal bankruptcy. If you want to see REAL BANKRUPTCY, go to the Middle East where the unemployment is as high as 50 per cent…

I saw on Barada TV (CIA TV) that the Syrian government has given a license to an opposition demonstration in Damascus. If this works, the government will be able to isolate the Islamists even more. I assume there are some protesters who are not looking to overthrow the state, so it is wise to attract those people away from the Islamists.

The fact that the oppositions can only muster few thousand demonstrators on Fridays only, the biggest gathering day in Syria, shows how weak they are. Showing up for a demonstration only on Fridays does not exactly show real commitment to any cause. On any giving Friday in Syria, millions of people gather in small places (Mosques) in every city, intensely tuned to the message of the imams, and well aware of the unrest in the country, yet less than 1% of them take it to the street. The rest simply go home… It’s not that hard to rally few thousands out of millions for any cause, if you package the message right and play on people’s emotions and insecurity, especially in a sectarian society like Syria. Most of the Friday protestors leave their home primarily intending to pray, as they have done for years, not demonstrate. Demonstration becomes a side show driven by some manipulations and peer pressure at the mosque. Granted, frustration caused by poverty and injustice are contributing factors, but not the main ones.

The real proof of the oppositions’ strength can be shown in their ability to draw the masses (not just few thousands here and there) on any day of the week, where people are leaving their homes and places of work for the sole purpose of protesting; that’s how it happened in Tunisia and Egypt. Thanks to Aljazeera, this movement grew only in coverage, but not in numbers. Aljazeera learned well from the American media to promote an issue by keeping it as front line news every day until it takes on a life of its own and becomes the main topic. That’s how marketing works.

Just wait until Assad’s supporters are allowed to take it to the street and rally. I bet you’ll see the masses at the scale of Egypt and Tunisia then. I wonder if Aljazeera will notice such movement…

If Assad is smart, he must establish connections with those young frustrated “liberals” and allow them to form a political body. Some of the non-politicized Sunnis can be attracted by such a body, and it is better to draw them away from the Islamists and give them some role in the political process. I believe the Syrian regime is expert in manipulating elections and political processes and it can give some role to new political factions without risking to lose power.

There are many things that Assad could have done, but it is a shame that he never did any before this crisis.

What happened to the hundreds of thousands of Kurds that “al jazeera” expected to rally behind the Syrian revolution? I only saw maybe 2000 Kurds I’n qamishli. Every week the demonstrations get smaller And smaller

But even in 21st century Syria, the opposition seems to want to fragment. These people should know better, but unfortunately, we live in a dumbdown age. Everybody’s stupid. Even the dictators are stupid.

Maybe we get the kind of government we deserve. Or maybe it’s a random thing. Or maybe God just doesn’t like us anymore…

NZ,
In my opinion, the main problem of the Syrians is the interference of the mukhabaraat in their daily business.
Make lists of the names of these guys, write complaints, put them on the internet, with pictures. Blackmail them by putting them into public scandals this way.
But for the rest, do not expect anything. Read the tweets of Sandmonkey (one of the heroes of the Tahrir revolution) on Twitter: he is broke without a computer or internet connection! And now he has to give lectures in the US to hope for some cash in exchange of a book or some interviews… Loss to the revolution during this time. Easy to manipulate.
I haven’t seen in Syria people sleeping in the street and dying from the cold and bad health during winter. In the US and Europe these are by hundreds in a harsh winter. In big cities you can now see people peeing or defecating in the midday. Looks more and more like India. Money is there though, jobs could be there, but instead the states want to starve people, to have dummies to send to the military, and especially they want the working class to look at all these homeleses in the streets and think ‘it could be me, i should not mess up with my job.’
There are ways to do a revolution, but we haven’t read constructive statements yet. A dialogue should start between the people, and even more, between the religious leaders. Because if you leave it for later, you will get into an Egyptian situation. Jobs are not going to materialize by God’s will in a day. Investments neither. A market such as Egypt’s with its 80 millions inhabitants and hundreds of thousands of tourists is more interesting and as for now they are in restraint because they wait and see. The only player which has an interest in Syria’s unrest is Israel, because whatever weakens Syria is to their advantage.
Now the message has been clear: Syria has been advised not to continue to let weapons reaching HA. It was the only message al Jazeera wanted to transmit.

Assassinating Bashar would be a waste of bullets. Bashar has proven himself to be incapable of controlling anything. His leadership throughout these events has been appalling. Good leaders are consistent. Good leaders keep their word, and make sure their word is obeyed and trusted. Good leaders are at the forefront, on TVs and always getting their word out. Bashar’s speech writers seem to have taken a vacation.

Bashar is a prisoner of the Assad and Makhlouf families, and thanks to the recent wave of sanctions against him and his, is now a prisoner stuck in a big jail called Syria. The average Syrian has more freedom to come and go as they please compared to junior.

They can demonstrate with the Vietnamese and the Polish flag in all the small towns and the remote villages, but how can they hope to have any effect if they can’t reach a few thousands ( many of which are kids), when their demands are not coherent and it is “Only on Fridays”?
I think they should be left alone to demonstrate, why bother?

If SC is so sick and Joshua so biased “because he is married to a Alawite” Qunfuz dixit, then why are you visiting it, you can catch the disease!
Maybe you don’t care because you’ve got a more dangerous disease that I prefer not to name.

On Joshua – by mentioning his marriage i was trying to find some excuse for him. as i said, without that background, it just looks like racism when he portrays protestors as a fanatical sunni mob, when he calls for US help to asad to suppress sunnis. I don’t want to fight these people more than I already have. My heart hurts over all this, including the rift that has opened between me and my former friends on SC. But Syrians all over the world are being threatened, towns inside are besieged, children are being shot, and the SC people continue to slander and misrepresent the uprising. I’m angry about that. And I felt what I had to say should be said. I’m in a position to say it. The people in cells, or in graves, are not in a position to say it.

Why do I continue to visit SC? Because, as I said in my article, it remains an indispensable site for news and views on Syria. I also read the Israeli and American press. Doesn’t mean I agree with all of it.

You must have wanted to address your comment to Saleandersen. I’m in principle against any and all violence, even if the predicted results are effective. The protests should maintain their peaceful nature at all time.

That’s hilarious. If anyone supported Abu Musab Al Zarqawi it was the US and the CIA. The lawsuit should be against their own government who created Al Qaeda and sent it everywhere. Syria has nothing whatsoever to do with anything related to Al Qaeda.

@102 Nour. I doubt the families of Eugene Armstrong and Jack Hensley find this as remotely funny as you do. 300 dead don’t mean a thing to the Baathist regime, but maybe the loss of $300 million will make them think twice before exporting their barbaric ways to neighboring countries.

Regimes have to be held accountable for the mayhem they sow. I wish the families of Eugene and Jack the best of luck in their quest for justice.

You’ll have to make allowances for the distorted reality in which Baathists live in. In the aftermath of the 1967 war, when Syria lost the Golan Heights, the Baathist government actually told the country that the war had been a victory for Syria, because Israel’s military victories hadn’t in the end caused an overthrow of the Baath government. The “glorious” Baathist revolution had managed to endure despite the war, and so everything turned out well in the end.

Seriously, how on Earth can a dialogue possibly be held with such people.

I really do not know what to think and how bad things are, I have relatives in Homs, my mother is in contact with them and from they are telling her that they are going out visiting friends even having a wedding is contradictory to how things seem to be , we can assume that they are trying to put up a good face so we do not worry, or they are worry about the lines being monitored , but i really do not think so, It seems that the problems in Homs are confined to certain neighborhoods,

Qunfuz,

I understand your sadness and how everything happen in the Mideast is put in a sectarian picture, that is not the problem of Dr Landis, that is the problem of the Mideast, look at Iraq, it was not a national resistance but an AL Qaeda Sunni one that started a sectarian war against the Shea of Iraq by killing thousands of innocent Iraqis with one reason onle they were shia or Christians , Did you raise you voice complaining about the sectarian divide that they put Iraq in,

They want to do the same thing to Syria , Bender of KSA threatened England with more of AL Qaeda attack after the scandal that they had with the weapon purchase, i do not know the details, but KSA is the source of all evil in the Mideast, not Islam , not Sunni, it is the Islam as taught in Saudi Arabia.

Yes, the problems are being confined to certain areas in Homs. But what is happening is that anyone in Homs with a beef against the regime is making their way to those areas, at prearranged times to take part in the demos. The demos aren’t just taking place on Fridays like some claim, but almost every night, each neighborhood coordinating with the others so that they take turns in going out.

Look what happened in Telkelakh, which before this week was totally devoid of any security men; people went out every week in their THOUSANDS. Apparently, such displays of independent thought were enough to scare the regime into sending in the tanks. You’d think with what happened on the Golan this week, the army would have been deployed there, and not been sent in unprecedented numbers to the f*cking Lebanese border.

seems ur getting very frustrated with the low turnout of syrians every friday 🙂 GAME OVER

Aboudi – did u forget to mention the real reason why the military moved into telkalakh? How the few scums of telkalakh were taking over hospitals and terrorising citizens and firebombing police stations and government buildings. By the looks of ur comments, it seems ur getting overly frustrated. Why don’t u buy a gun and hide I’n between the demonstrators and shoot at citizens and security officers. Or why don’t u break into government buildings and set them on fire?

Mr. 21st century (#86) must’ve not taken notice of who really is fueling this uprising…I guess he doesn’t mind being led into the 21st century by people who are still living in the six century. I, and just about everyone on this board, are all for reforms to include multi party system, new election law, and term limits for all politicians, but it must be completely secular and unconditionally inclusive and equal for all people, including devil worshipers. That’s how the civilized world defines democracy. Do you really think those “Friday demonstrators”, coming straight out of mosques loaded with sixth century mindset will agree to that?

Reforms are not going to happen overnight, and the president already set the reform process in motion, so why the demonstrations and calling for the government’s fall using Islamic slogans (Allah Akbar, La elah ela allah and Muhamed resoul allah, etc…)? Replacing a secular dictatorship with religious one is not my idea of freedom and democracy; I hope it’s not yours either…

Vlad
Thanks for the clip #111, it actually shows that the riot police are armless and not all of them hold batons in their hands, while the protesters are attacking them with stones for no obvious reason but to provoke them to retaliate.

Jad,
The problem is that these “revolutionists” are unable to increase or even sustain their numbers and thus are resorting to violence and destruction of property in order to somehow have an impact. They are completely bankrupt and know that they have no way of bringing down the regime as the vast majority of Syrians oppose them vehemently. It’s unfortunate, however, that Syrians have to lose their lives as a result of their thuggishness and idiocy.

The armed gangs were not only behind the violence, destructions, theft and burnings of homes, a source in Tal Kalakh told me that some of the men behind this, mainly the ones from Wadi Khaled went to a school in Tal Kalakh and demanded the principle direct them to the female pupils that are Alawi.

The principle advised them they had left the area with their families when the violence began. After he persuaded them to leave the premises, he notified the authorities who apprehended most of the gang members.

They discovered that the gang members were intending to rape the girls purely because of their sect.

The organisers are losing grip of this so called revolution and are willing to do anything to re fuel and escalate the violence again.

Nour,
Actually those guys are taking away lots of the cause of the protests and it’s obvious that all fatal casualties are happening in areas where the protesters go violence and that is the only rational explanation of why the majority of protests doesn’t get any victims while others get higher numbers and it is also obvious that the police are actually doing their best to avoid clashing with them, yet, the protesters keep provoking the police in a dangerous way to retaliate with fire hence you get people killed as a result.

At this point and after 2 months of the same stupid thing every Friday those oppositions must come with something more useful than wasting Syrian’s lives to use the victims blood for more chaos and instability without giving any proper vision or ideas or solutions for the conflict. It’s obvious by now that the oppositions have no clue of what they want or where they are taking Syria to but to an ugly future. The more they do that the more Syrians are leaving them and sticking to the regime not to mention that the opposition leaders themselves are starting to fight with each others over the next step after using all their cards without getting any real results on ground other than what Dr. Landis wrote: ‘Syrians will get poorer.’

That’s quite funny. Fida Alsayed can shave his beard and Ammer Abdulhamid can lose the ponytail as you suggest, but it’s true that while snakes can shed their skin, they still have the same old snake skin underneath and there’s no changing that.

The opposition has become sick. It has no aim, no real support on the ground, no program, just inciting people to attack the security officers and film with their mobiles phones whatever may be interpreted as an aggression from the police. What a strategy! These organizers must be tried for inciting to violence and judged for the death their calls have caused.

It seems that the Palestinians are preparing demonstrations possibly on the 25 May to commemorate the martyrs that fell under Israelis weapons last week.
Israel has reinforced its borders on the Golan.

You have to be stupid in a really retarded, country-dumb way, to actually believe that the USA and the Jews gave birth to al-Qaeda. And the hilarious aspect of it is, Bashar’s propagandists used this point to justify firing on protestors.

You ask yourself, how can people be that stupid? And then you remember, this is the Middle East.

Middle East fact: Famous Atheist Christopher Hitchens was in Syria on a visit and he walked past the building in Damascus housing the Syrian Nazi Party (swear to God, there is really a Syrian Nazi Party and it’s legal…LOL). He took out a can of spray paint and sprayed some graffiti on the outside wall and he was arrested. Only in the Arab world can you get arrested for hassling Nazis.

there is no nazi party in Syria. What this Famous Atheist thought nazi party is the SNPP (former PPS Parti Populaire Syrien) created by Antoun Saadé in the late 1920 if i’m not mistaken. Nothing to do with Nazism or Israel. It is strictly syrian and secular.

Actually, graffiti is an offence in most parts of the world, whether it be on a building belonging to nazi, government and private buildings or places of worship. I’m sure vandals if they are caught, will be arrested for the same in the US, UK, Asia and Africa, not only in the middle east.

Graffiti is an offence in most parts of the world whether it be on public or private property. I’m sure graffiti vandals in the US, UK, Asia or Africa, will be charged for the offence no matter where they spray their graffiti.

Vlad do you actually have a grasp of the English language? Or do semantics simply get lost in an overzealous rush to write whatever drivel happens to cross your mind at that precise moment? Think before you hit the Submit button.

These sycophantic pro Assad comments would be laughable if they weren’t so grotesque in their delusions about the ground reality in Syria. The fact is the revolution is growing in power and it is clearly not limited to the Sunni population. The Allawite regime and the collaborators who enable them in Syria will enter the dustbin of history like the other tyrants in the Arab world in a matter of weeks or months and this is inevitable. Only Iran, Israel and the Iranian terrorist proxies will shed a tear for their demise.

HASSAN – its funny how u and ur internet geeks are still in denial about the “circus revolution”. it is coming to an end. come to syria and see the reality on ground. in 99% of syria life is back to normal, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. in a few weeks it wont exist. can you show me a single christian, allawi, more than 10% sunni, more than 1% druze, shiite or any other sect that has supported the revolution? you do not have a single piece of evidence. Stop using the typical excuse that everyone is using nowadays ” they are too scared to come out and protest”. 95% of syrians are fed up of these thugs and extremists. they do no shed a tear for anyone who is killed during demonstrations. GAME OVER INTERNET GEEKS

DAMASCUS // Anti-government demonstrations turned deadly again yesterday in Syria, with at least 34 people killed by security services, according to human rights activists.

Previous Fridays had seemed to weaken the protest movement, with thousands of dissidents and residents of restive neighbourhoods in detention, a communications blackout and military units deployed in strength to prevent public gatherings.

Yesterday, however, as anti-government demonstrations entered a third month, the number of protesters on the streets grew in strength, activists and analysts said, with rallies also spreading across the country.

A ring of suburbs around the capital all staged demonstrations yesterday – the first time they have done so on the same day,

footage posted online by activists showed. There were also rallies in the central cities of Homs and Hama, while others took place in the north, east, south and west of the country.

Compared to last Friday, when six demonstrators were killed – the lowest number of fatalities in weeks – by early yesterday evening at least 34 demonstrators, including a child, had died in shootings by the security services. The deaths occurred mostlyly in Homs

and Maaret al-Numan, a city midway between Hama and Aleppo, human rights activists said.

Two people were also killed in the region around Deraa, the focal point of the uprising that has gripped Syria since March 15. Syrian officials had said that army units were being pulled out of the area last week.

Human rights groups believe between 700 and 1,000 protesters have been killed since the uprising began, although those numbers cannot be independently confirmed and are disputed by the Syrian government.

Yesterday’s shootings – on a day described as “another bloody Friday” by one pro-democracy dissident – and the scale of protests posed serious questions over the effectiveness of government policy to quash dissent through a mixture of force and a promise of negotiations.

Hopes that such a “national dialogue”, as authorities have called the proposed talks, will actually happen now seem increasingly unrealistic, a civil rights campaigner said. The source added that room for compromise between the government and protesters in shrinking with each passing week.

“More and more people seem to be approaching the point where they feel they have nothing to lose by demonstrating,” he said, on condition of anonymity. “Every week the protesters feel the government will not make reforms and will not make the decisions necessary to calm the situation down and end it peacefully.”

In some of areas, supposedly brought back into line through a massive deployment of security units, protesters once again took to the more lightly policed streets.

This was the case in a number of working-class suburbs to the south of Damascus where protests resumed after weeks of quiet. Protesters’ demands in these areas have hardened from requests for political reforms and greater freedoms. Marching dissidents were heard yesterday chanting, “The people want to topple the regime.” Others simply shouted, “Leave”.

“The security thought they had many of these places under control but as soon as they leave a neighbourhood, the protesters return, and they seem to be even more active than before,” said Abdul Karim Rehawi, head of the Syrian Human Rights League.

Such resilience underlines the need to seek a political, not military, solution to the crisis, Mr Rehawi said, adding that the government should immediately begin a process of open political discussion involving all sectors of society.

“So far there have been consultations and meetings with some opposition figures but much more than that is now needed, and

urgently,” he said. “We have the same requests as we had weeks ago: release political prisoners, stop shooting, allow peaceful

demonstrations, and have real dialogue.”

Syrian officials have been adamant that the crisis is winding down, with pro-government figures dismissing reports of

demonstrations as lies manufactured by their enemies and spread by malevolent media networks.

State media did, however, acknowledge a dozen rallies yesterday.

“Gatherings of scores and hundreds of citizens took place in a number of provinces after Friday prayers, chanting for freedom, mostly dispersing after a short time,” the official news agency SANA reported.

It also reported that security force personnel and civilians had been shot at by “armed groups’ in Homs and near Idleb. Officials have consistently blamed the killings, including the death of more than 120 security service personnel, on Islamic terrorists with support from foreign countries.

That message is certainly believed by at least some Syrians, who talk of a plot by the country’s enemies to weaken Damascus. There are also significant fears, mainly among minority groups, that a sectarian civil war will break out if the largely secular government loses control. Syria is made of different sectarian and ethnic groups, with a Sunni Muslim majority.

Most Syrians are not taking part in demonstrations, and President Bashar al Assad, 11 years into his rule, still appears to enjoy a wide base of popular support.

That popularity, while real and widespread, is dwindling as the crisis continues, according to one Syrian political analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The silent majority is still quiet which is taken as a sign of support for the president,” he said. “But I see indications that [support] is slowly starting to shift as doubts are settling it.

“It’s still not too late for him to keep that majority on his side but it will take decisive political reforms. Things cannot just be allowed to drift as they are. At the moment, there is no actual policy; it’s just crisis management that is failing to managing the crisis.”

Kanj,do you mean that 95 % of the syrian people are happy to be humiliated by a minority gang ?with mass corruption and mass deception ?that they agree that all top officiers are selected according to sectarian lines ? That iranian theocrats,that the iranian people hate, are brought to the centers of Syria in order to spread extremist views ?now enjoy the response !
And i request from you and alikes that you show your support for Asad regime once the road turns,especially in Aleppo and in Damascus.(amongst your 95 %)
We are in an historical process of change,this is a logic of history ,why do you fear democratic change ?
We will read carefuly what Syria Comment regime supporters would write after the end of Asad-Makhlouf era.

The only thing that sets the Nazi party apart from other fascist parties is its racism. The Nazi party without its racist ideas would be just another fascist party. Fascist parties are legal in most countries as far as I know.

The SSNP is a non-racist fascist party. The founder of the party criticized Hitler for his racism.

95% of syrians are humiliated by the murder of their own soldiers At the hands of juvenile thugs and extremists. Does the burning of government buildings and cars,, murder of army personnel, slayings of ordinary civilians by Islamic extremists, blocking roads to ordinary syrians to travel, not humiliate you? 95% of syrians are proud of their president and country, but are ashamed of the 5% of ignorant syrians like urself. Either you are with 95% of the Syrian population or ur against them? Make up ur mind . Love it or leave it 🙂

You are floating in a state of delusion. No roads will be turning, apart from the road of instability and violence.

Bashar Assad and his army are regaining stability in the country.
There are still some persistant armed gangs who have yet to be apprended, but make no mistake, they will be. Once they are behind bars and stability is secured, reforms will kick in and the country will continue to prosper.

Shami, nz and aboudi must be I’n another world . They just can’t seem to realise that the circus revolution has run out of steam and is rejected by a great majority of syrians. They remind me of the harriri clan and march 14 camp I’n Lebanon , who waited And begged for American assisstance and sold their souls for the sake of a few dollars.

The only way I can see it is that when someone feels they are losing grip on a situation based on a lie, they will clutch at straws and try anything to continue on with the delustion they are living in.

If they actually saw the revolution for what it was and spoke to the real citizens of Syria, they will know how things stand and the detest people have for the ‘revolutionists’ causing all this trouble.

The March 14 psycho’s are still at it and have their hands deep in this violent revolution.

“Also Friday, leading Sunni Muslim cleric Sheik Karim Rajeh, the imam of Damascus’s Al-Hassan mosque, said he will no longer lead Friday sermons because security forces have been preventing people from going to prayers. ”

Disgraceful. In over 1400 years of the existence of Islam, this is the first time any Muslim had been forbidden from going out and praying. Not even the Israelis did that to the Palestinians. Shameful. But then, what do you expect from a regime whose supporters consist of rape-fantasists.

This Islamist cleric was on the side of the protesters since day 1 and he was one of those secretly asking their followers to participate in the rebellion. The government was probably unable to depose him because they feared the reaction of his community. By resigning, he has done the government a great favor.

The truth of the situation struck a chord as it seems. As they say, the truth hurts.

As disgusting is it is, it is what happened. If it escaped your memory, an apprehended gang member confessed to such intentions. Luckily neither they nor the ones in Tal Kalakh were able to live out their fantasies.

What’s disgusting is the ‘revolution’ fanatics who are defending the abhorrent violence, the murders, mutilations intentions of rape and destruction of public and private property.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG_aqGzTFzk
The situation in Tal Kalakh, residents accounts prior and post the army intervention. The situation I was advised about regarding the attempted rapes, that was from a source in Tal Kalakh.

As for #157, What a laughable claim. The government has never nor will it ever prevent people from prayer, after all, they are not Islamists to have such a disgusting sectarian streak within their sick minds.

Syria-news.com is gradually becoming more open about its support of the rebellion. It is run by Nidal Maalouf, a young man who is commonly accused of being pro-government, but he is not. He is very anti-government and the fact that he is gradually becoming open about this means either that the secret police are too busy to deal with him now or that there is something changing in the Syrian media.

And now it is those oh so evil Friday prayer imams who are part of the nefarious plots against junior. Seriously, how many enemies does Mr Paranoid eye doctor think he has? Not even Batman and Supereman had so many enemies that changed on a weekly basis. Bashar-Man, whose God-like powers consist of the amazing ability to bend reality, so that what happens is the exact opposite of what he says.

As to the supposed rapes in Telkelakh, if such a thing had even remotely occurred, those liars on Syrian TV and Dunya would have been all over it. But even they know they can’t get away with a lie of such magnitude. It takes a special kind of perverted mind to repeat such claims with a straight face. Apparently, such minds are in abundance on this forum.

This will be the first legal opposition demonstration. Even if the demonstration draws few people, it will be a good way to divide the rebellion. It is sad that this step comes late. The government should give licenses even to those who are demanding to topple the regime if they ask. It is better to draw as many people as possible away from the radical and violent elements. At least these demonstrations will be under the government control and their size and duration can be controlled. Even their slogans and demands can be negotiated and altered.

The Islamists will never ask for a license because that would expose them and expose their real face. Those who will ask for a license are the young frustrated people. The government should not be afraid of those people. It must attract them away from the Islamists. It is possible to reach a sensible deal with those young non-Islamist people, so why not do that and embarrass the Islamists and their foreign sponsors?

If the apprehended gang members do confess on tv, then you will probably see it.
Otherwise, I dont think anyone would want to make public knowledge of such and abhorrent attempt at rape in a school, after all, who would send their children to school with that threat looming.

Now that the revolution violence comming to an end thanks to Bashar and the Syrian army, people in Syria are finally able to return to some kind of normalcy.

An hour ago I was out getting a new lock for a bedroom door, near the old clock in downtown Homs. A demonstration was in progress, easily several thousand people.

The security guys wore black, and consisted mostly of scared skinny kids who didn’t seem to know how to hold their batons. They didn’t present an imposing or intimidating sight. In fact one can only feel sorry for them, obviously kids who wanted to get through their obligatory army service with as little trouble as possible, and instead ended up on the wrong side of the most momentous events in their country’s history.

@163

“If the apprehended gang members do confess on tv, then you will probably see it.”

Yes, because we all know that the highest standards of credibility and integrity are confessions broadcast on Syrian TV. Seriously who in God’s name is running Bashar’s propaganda? Because from the ineptitude we’ve seen, he must be a secret mole planted by the Bandar/Harriri/Salafi/Zionist/International Evil League of Rapists That Never Were Coalition Against Bashar-Man.

No, the integrity and credibility of Al Jazeera surpasses any other news station by far. They have so many true accounts and eyewitnesses, their stories must be true, after all, it is abu Mohamad and others alike they are talking to. They even aired a video of a fake funeral with the coffins flipping through the air and didnt even notice it. So I think they win the award.

I WAS NEAR THE CLOCK TOWER WITH MY COUSINS 1 HOUR AGO AND I DIDNT SEE SUCH A THING. U MUST BE ABU ABDO OR ABU HAYDAR FROM ALJAZEERA, WITH UR EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS. THE OLD AND NEW CLOCK TOWERS HAVE BEEN FREE FROM THUGS FOR THE PAST 3WEEKS. WHAT WAS THE NAME OF THE SHOP U BOUGHT UR BEDROOM LOCK FROM?

HAVE A LOOK AT THIS VIDEO SHOT IN IDLEB. CAN U COUNT THE NUMBER OF MACHETES, KNIVES, BATTONS, SHARP OBJECTS, THAT ARE BEING CARRIED BY THESE “PEACEFUL REVOLUTIONISTS”? AFTER U FINISH COUNTING MAYBE 20+ WEAPONS THAT WERE USED AGAINST THE SYRIAN SECURITY FORCES, U WILL BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND WHY THEY WERE SHOT AT YESTERDAY. REMEMBER THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT. IF A SECURITY OFFICER’S LIFE IS IN DANGER, HE HAS THE RIGHT TO PROTECT HIMSELF

Some names are so generic on this forum it’s laughable. I don’t know what the name of the shop was, if you’ve ever been to that area in your life you’d know there are dozens of places that sell such stuff (95 liras for a hammer, 55 liras for the lock, 35 liras for the taxi back home which I rounded up to 45 liras).

The entire downtown market was shut down, and I barely had enough time to buy a lock before that shop shut down. There were several thousand people gathered near the Grand Mosque. This was between 1 and 2 o’clock.

The police had shut down the roads between the new and old clocks. The Syrian people are the bravest in the world. Despite brutal crackdowns, they continue to turn out in droves to fight for their freedoms.

Also people, learn not to use caps, it just shows how hysterical you are.

YOU HAVE JUST PROVEN TO EVERYONE ON SYRIA COMMENT, THAT YOU ARE THE ABU HAYDAR FROM AL JAZEERA 🙂 SHOPS IN HOMS DO HAVE NAMES. I THINK U HAVE JUST SHOWED YOUR TRUE COLOURS. YOU DONT LIVE IN SYRIA AND U HAVE NO CLUE ABOUT WHAT IS HAPPENING IN SYRIA OR HOMS. THE SHOPS ARE OPEN AS NORMAL. I WAS AT THE BLUE STONE CAFE IN HOMS 1 HOUR AGO. I DIDNT C NO SHOPS CLOSED OR ANYTHING ABNORMAL. ABOUD, GET BACK TO PLAYING UR PLAYSTATION GAMES.

GIVE ABOUD SOME TIME. HE IS PROBABLY ON GOOGLE TRYING TO FIND NAMES OF SHOPS IN HOMS THAT SELL LOCKS HHAHAHAHAHA. GIVE ABOUD A FEW MINUTES AND HE WILL COME BACK WITH A NAME OR 2 OF THE SHOPS IN HOMS. ABOUD OWNS A PLANE. HE CAN FLY FROM COUNTRY TO COUNTRY ON A DAILY BASIS

I say:
Assuming that this news is credible, I would like to share with you my observations and comments:
– The “reform program” was announced in a non-Syrian paper. Specifically, It was a medium owned by anti-regime, March 14th coalition, championed by Mr. 7ariri
– The news of this reform program was broken to the Ambassadors of the same countries who have been considered to be backing the conspirators!
Here are my comments:
– The regime preferred foreign media to its own!
– The regime preferred to break the news to representatives of other nations instead of its own.
– You used the expression “cosmetic” to describe the proposed open presidential elections. I agree with your assessment of regime’s ill-intentions! However, the proper description would be “deceitful”!
– Last and not least; It has been my experience that all “reforms” introduced by this regime were upgrades of old repressive practices. I yet to see evidence to the contrary.

Abboud
I think you live in Malmoe, Sweden and you are a close friend to the MB nerd. You use Google Earth to move around, this is why you’re sometimes in Lebanon, sometimes in Homs and sometimes at IKEA. Maybe this is where you bought the bedroom lock.

Mina, I’d appreciate it if you could point to the post where I said I was in Lebanon.

Mr All-Caps-Generic-Name, the Blue Stone is in Hamadiya, far away from the old clock and new clock areas *facepalm*. From there it would have been impossible for you to see or hear anything from the area around the Jamee3 Al Kabeer.

Today at noon it was overflowing with protestors. They may have stayed half an hour, an hour, but it is the habit of the demos these days to make their presence known, and then disperse before the security can get themselves organized. A very clever approach.

Since somehow someone has gotten the impression that I’m from Lebanon, I’ll share with you the front page of today’s weekly classified paper, Al-Wasila. As those of you familiar with Syria know, this is a paper that is distributed every Saturday, with specific editions for each province, so the paper that gets distributed in Homs is different from Aleppo and Damascus.

Today’s front page is an ad for a Samsung 32 inch LCD, with the image of a female boxer. I invite anyone here who actually lives in Homs to tell us what the advertised price is (quite reasonable, I’d have bought one if I hadn’t gotten an LG TV just two weeks ago).

I love this obsession with where Aboud lives. Even if Aboud lived on Mars, over 960 Syrians are dead due to the unparalleled brutality of the Baathist regime, and over 10,000 are in jail for wanting nothing more than their freedoms.

Yes, and I took Fisk to task for his absurd reporting about Telkelakh. 40 people did not die there, and 40 people did not die even during last week’s invasion.

Still waiting for people who take their lunches in Hamadiya to let us know the price on Samsung’s great new 32 LCD sale…..waiting….waiting….yes, it takes a bit of time to call up your Baathist friends in Homs….waiting…..

Ill take my caps locked off for u. Maybe it’s blinding ur eyes from the constant late nights u have on ur playstation. Congratulations on taking 1hour to prove that ur on the moon and not I’n Homs . Great evidence u bring out. A front page advertisement on today’s newspaper? What a genius you are mr haydar. Keep up the great work boy 🙂

Did they show you their military ID cards or their metal tags? Please enlighten me as to how you know they are 4th division.

The army personnel have sacrificed their blood for the stability of the Syrian people, many have died in battle, have been ambushed or have been murdered by the ‘peaceful protesters’ of this revolution.

So the person @181 has been provided with irrefutable proof that his assumptions are flat out wrong. In addition, he has no way to back up his own claims. It’s a pattern we have grown familiar with when dealing with Baathists and the Syrian media.

Boy to Dad: “Daddy, where do liars go? To hell?”

Dad: “No son, they go on Syrian state TV”

The price is 17,999 Syrian Liras. Damn, why did I have to buy that 23 inch LG…..

SHami,
Do you prefer Alshallah-Ghrewati Era?????or do you want the army to be sunni as well????there is only 1 alawi Minister in the government and you call it a sectarian??????open your eyes and stop believing in change unless it is for the better not for an Islamic Monarchy…